Building Business Dimensions to Unlock Organisational Potential in a Rapidly Evolving Ecosystem

An industry insight on evolving ecosystems, the need for organisations to align their business dimensions to navigate shifts, and how Skribble views its role in helping businesses capitalise on 4IR.

Shifting Ecosystems?

The second wave of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is radically altering traditional industry boundaries. Industry insights cite rapidly developing technologies that are fuelling vertical-consuming business ecosystems to create cross-industry solutions. A white paper by Logical Design Solutions postulates that industry verticals will converge into a dozen or fewer ecosystems within the next decade.

Ecosystems present opportunities for businesses to innovate their business models. In a business ecosystem, industry sectors will have no borders and value is created from aligned players cooperating across industry boundaries to harness rewards from the ecosystem.?

“Companies that utilize business ecosystems will be better positioned to drive innovation and capital efficiency to create customer value.”?- Grey Sarafin of Ernst and Young

Business Building Blocks?

Businesses are built on the ‘going concern’ principle, an assumption that an entity will remain in business for the foreseeable future. This proposition drives organisations to work towards achieving longevity and resilience. The Fourth Industrial Revolution features artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and other cognitive systems and has the potential to help businesses attain resilience by transforming various aspects of their operations.

We can expect disruption to conventional businesses resulting in job losses for some sectors. Companies may experience significant legal concerns in data privacy, cybersecurity and regulation; it may also become challenging to avoid a digital divide between countries and cultures. On the upside, economic growth is the order of the day.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution will enable businesses to respond faster to the market and stay competitive. It also empowers businesses to be game changers. For this to take place, businesses must have a clear understanding of their internal dimensions and the ecosystem in which the business operates.

Business Dimensions and the 4IR

Business dimensions such as strategy and planning, human resource, technology, finance, legal, and operations have distinct functions and play significant roles in a business to achieve organisational outcomes. A business entity needs to truly understand each business dimension and its functions, and leverage opportunities within and across dimensions.

For example, the new customer experience may be a combination of the functions of IT, sales, customer support, and marketing working together to bring about an effective marketing funnel which then converts to a seamless discovery, booking and customer service encounter. No one function leads; instead, all functions must come together for operational efficiency.

Digitalisation is pervasive across business dimensions and 4IR technologies can help resolve opaque processes to empower integration and consolidation. More than just adopting digital solutions, businesses need to be able to architect, create, and excel. Skribble aims to play a more significant role in helping businesses achieve sustainable competitiveness through an understanding of their business ecosystem, and to implement holistic solutions within the context and nuances of their business dimensions.

A Mindset for Holistic Solutions?

Modern businesses are complex. A small change in one part of a business dimension can have cascading effects. Hence, it is important for strategic thinking, flexibility, adaptability, risk-taking and support to apply across all business dimensions.

But the complex is not necessarily complicated. We work with clients across industries and we encourage them to develop a mindset that looks at their business from a holistic point of view. We help companies to derive potential through a 360 degree approach that gives clarity, guidance, context, direction and vision, structure, and accountability across and between business dimensions. Discovery is a crucial tool, and at Skribble, we invest in the discovery process for the Skribble Engines to provide customised solutions.

A Skribble Case for Business Perpetuity

The tourism and hospitality industry is an ecosystem of verticals in transportation, food and beverage, lodging, and entertainment. The industry, made up largely of MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises), was among the hardest hit by the Pandemic. Lockdowns and quarantine measures cast uncertainty that resulted in a decline of up to 90%, followed by a near-total loss of business throughout April, May and June 2020 (The Star, 2020).?

The critical concern for tourism and hospitality businesses during the Pandemic was business perpetuity. Our clients needed solutions on how to hold out the period and prepare for the opportunities to come. We started the discovery process by assessing skills and competency to understand organisational resources and journey with people to evaluate systems within the business dimensions.

Through a "hand-hold" process, we worked with leadership to achieve clarity on optimising resources; and guide them on how new revenue streams can be capitalised on during the Pandemic. We provided context to help leaders understand changes within the ecosystem; and this provided a platform for decisions related to direction and vision, which included strategies for new business models. We also aligned human resources changes and restructured personnel for leaner structures.?

Once we alleviated the crisis and put in place measures to avert an impending one, we handed over the controls to empower clients with the accountability process. With higher expectations of convenience, seamless experience and emerging technology-first alternatives, Skribble helps businesses embrace digitalisation and capitalise on the ecosystem change that’s unfolding across the region.

Way Forward - Nurturing Potential?

Businesses must experience their fullest potential, especially now that industries are returning to a new normal and business ecosystems are kicking into full gear. Companies with an ecosystem mindset will pursue authentic, seamless stakeholder experiences with an eye for exponential growth. Effective solutions for businesses will help companies build and nurture ecosystem partnerships through strong stewardship of who they are and what’s around them.

Skribble Me (Skribble) is a company providing solutions for business. Founded in 2014, Skribble employs a holistic 360 degree approach to help businesses and brands unlock value to drive growth. Go to skribble.me for more information on the Skribble Solutions.

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